Hundreds of families are hitting the road in 2019 to embark on a Lap of Oz, leaving jobs, loved ones and hitting the road for an adventure of a lifetime.  The DeKroon’s are packed up and ready to make Australia their school – school of education and school of LIFE.  We can’t wait to follow along…

Say a big hello to the DeKroon Family! Real Stories from Real Families…

Hello, we are Rebecca, Peter & Jasmine (16) Amy-lee (12) &Tamika (7) of DeKroon’s Exploring Oz.

Taking this journey to do the Lap of Australia has been on the cards for many years but the reality of making this happen was very scary for us and it was the biggest decision.

Why we decided to do this, we just wanted to explore Australia, and educate the kids of what Australia is about and not just learn about its history in text books. We did not want to do the same routine every day, we wanted to sit back and relax soak in the sun & follow the sun.

It was January 2018 and we embarked on taking a trip to Tasmania with a camper Trailer.

We had the most amazing time exploring Tasmania, visiting places, seeing what a different state provided, different atmosphere, very open, Large mountains, beautiful scenery and landscapes, Beaches and most off all meeting new people and the kids making new friends. Our trip was for only 10 days and went very quickly and did not want it to end, our second last day we decided and spoke about doing the lap and explore. “Let’s just do it” that was easier than said than done” later that afternoon we left camp for the day and came back, let’s say we came back to a very flooded and drenched camper trailer site.

Everything was drenched, clothing, bedding and all. So, we packed up and stayed at a hotel the night before we departed back to Melbourne on the Spirit of Tasmania.

After we were settled back at home we decided to let’s do it, we knew there was so much for us to do leading up to putting our house up on the market, we went to a lot of caravan places, Caravan and camping shows, it was so daunting but super exciting at the same time.

We walked through the gates at the Melbourne show grounds and the first eye catching stall was Vacationer Caravans. We were in love with the caravan set up, Customer service was super awesome, I had an instant connection to them, but we knew we had to keep looking, so looking at many more caravans and a long day we came across another caravan company. We were stuck between 2, but after weeks of looking and studying all the brochures we went back to Vacationer, best of all they were so close to us. From day dot we have had the most amazing customer service from them and answered all we wanted to know in the fastest manner. So, it became real when we paid our deposit of our caravan. We purchased the Vacationer Highlander fully off road and WOW.

In July we needed to do renovating, cleaning up, Tip runs, selling all our items, Finishing school off.

Sep/Oct we were ready to have the house put up on the market, It was very exciting and very daunting for us. We were expecting the house to be up on the market for quite some time as the market was very slow.

After 14 days on the market we accepted an amazing offer on our house. We were shocked to get what we wanted, also the local real-estate agencies.

We then came to look for cars, A lot of car researching, and we came across the Ford ranger, to our luck in December 2018 they had a 2019 Ford Ranger on display in the showroom, well my husband put that deposit down immediately. I had other cars in mind, but peter is a FORD man and to try and keep him in budget was a mission, but after a lot of Price negotiation and accessory inclusions we got an amazing deal we couldn’t refuse.

Settlement happened and wow, Money came in and went out so fast, we are ready to embark on this amazing journey on the road exploring what Australia has to offer.

The hardest thing for me was resigning from a job I absolutely love and adore and will miss my job and my customers, but we cannot wait to meet new people along the way and embark this awesome journey.

We are very nervous about being on the road on finding work, Peter is a good handy man, loves doing electrical work, and helping others. I have RSA, RSG work behind me and barista work so hopefully there will be plenty out there, but then I have signed up to start my course on the road doing a diploma of Paramedical Science then bachelor’s Degree to be a paramedic.

Tamika is super excited to start her schooling on the road, it will be a bit crazy for us at the start and trying to start a routine while on the road to ensure she starts her Year 2 this year. Jasmine and Amy-lee will stay behind whilst at school and hoping for them to fly up to where ever we are during the school holidays.

We really enjoy watching and reading up on everyone’s journey and have been marking a lot of places on Wiki Maps.

Hope to see you all on the road, Rebecca, Peter and Tamika

You can follow the DeKroon’s adventures on their Facebook Page!